Top technology firms including Facebook will help design a new computer science training course for school teachers, Michael Gove announced today.

Speaking at Langley Grammar School in Berkshire this morning, the Education Secretary revealed the plans as part of a move to replace the current information and communications technology (ICT) teacher training courses with new industry-supported computer science courses.

"Computer Science is not just a rigorous, fascinating and intellectually challenging subject. It is also vital to our success in the global race," said Gove.

"If we want our country to produce the next Sir Tim Berners-Lee – creator of the Internet – we need the very best Computer Science teachers in our classrooms. They need to have the right skills and deep subject knowledge to help their pupils.”

Mr Gove also indicated that the new computer science GCSE course could become part of the English Baccalaureate qualification. Currently, pupils are awarded the EBacc if they score at least a C at GCSE in English, maths, science, history or geography and a foreign language.

He said: "Computer science requires a thorough grounding in logic and set theory, and is merging with other scientific fields into new hybrid research subjects like computational biology.

"If new Computer Science GCSEs are developed that meet high standards of intellectual depth and practical value, we will certainly consider including computer science as an option in the English Baccalaureate."

Plans to shelve the current ICT curriculum and allow schools to focus more strongly on computer science were announced by Mr Gove in January.

Speaking in January, Mr Gove said that ICT in UK schools was "harmful and dull" and must be radically revamped to prepare pupils for the future.

The new teacher training courses, which will start from September 2013, will also take on boards views from BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT, said the Department for Education.

A new scholarship worth £20,000 will be offered to 50 top graduates in the first year to train as computer science teachers. Any graduate with a 2.1 or first class degree will be eligible to apply for the scholarship to do a Computer Science Initial Teacher Training (ITT) course.

Existing ICT teachers will also be trained as experts in computer science.

Requirements for the subject knowledge and attributes all new computer science teachers should have were also set out today. These include being able to demonstrate an understanding of key computer science concepts and approaches such as algorithms, data representation and logic.

Simon Milner, Facebook's Director of Public Policy for UK & Ireland, said: "Facebook welcomes the scholarship programme for teachers announced by the Government today. It is a positive step to help get high quality computer science teachers in schools, and therefore ensure more young people gain the right skills to join and lead our digital industries.

"We get excited by how the work of Facebook engineers and outside developers is transforming the way millions of people communicate, so we can't wait to share our passion and expertise in this area to inspire the next generation.”

However, Stephen Twigg MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary said: “Michael Gove has developed an analog curriculum in a digital age. His outdated EBacc places no value on subjects such as computing. If we are to remain competitive, we need to instigate a Computer Science revolution, starting with getting primary school children to learn coding."

The Royal Society’s Shut down or restart? report in January highlighted the highly unsatisfactory state of ICT education in the UK, recommending that every child should have the opportunity to study the rigorous academic discipline of computer science.